the-warrior-percussionette

plaguedocboi

Did you know that leeches were once used to predict storms? Well, a tornado warning just dropped and my squad is climbing

plaguedocboi

@takemetoturch

My dad is a meteorologist and he has never once warned me about an incoming storm. My leeches, however......

sucre-sanguine

https://amp.theguardian.com/news/2015/apr/19/weatherwatch-forecasting-tempest-prognosticator-storm-leech

articulate-anxious-atheist

*urgently* Lads, the leechometre is at 12 bong, I repeat, 12 bong!

sixthrock

"tempest prognosticator" absolutely sounds like some kind of arcane device a wizard would have lying around in his workshop

hearthburn

It would also probably have leeches in it.

haberdashing

jame7t

I'm afraid with the recent death, it's without a doubt that one of our guests here is a vampire. I've narrowed it down between Stacy, who was drinking "red wine" when we got here- Michael, who is goth, or Daniel, who I don't like.

Professor Acula, hand me that notepad

haberdashing

thethingonvhs1982

The wildfires in Maui aren't natural disasters, they are colonial disasters and a direct result of both the fossil fuel industry and the military industrial complex.

Realtors preying on property in Lahaina- while Kānaka Maoli who resided there for generations are now houseless- is a result of greed and disaster capitalism.

Citizen journalists on the ground are reporting on the devastating cost these fires have on their communities and the untold stories in the media about the tourists still actively extracting land and from already limited resources.

pics by slowfactory on ig

HAPA Hawaii support link

Stop Maui land grabs petition

thethingonvhs1982

Theres a lot of notes but more ppl need to sign the petition

haberdashing

queeranarchism

At least once a month someone will write “anarchism isn’t about no hierarchies, anarchism is about no UNJUST hierarchies” and will then name the most extremely fucked up hierarchy as their example of a ‘just’ hierarchy.

Like, no, comrade, the doctor-patient relationship is NOT a just hierarchy. The power that doctors have to not just give advice but to decide for us which care we get and which care we don’t get is deeply fucked up. Speak to a woman and you will get on average like 4 stories about medical abuse by sexist doctors who didn’t want to google ‘endometriosis’. Then speak to trans people. Then speak to fat people. Then speak to people of color. Then speak to a disabled person. I promise you will be horrified by what marginalized people endure under the doctor-patient hierarchy. Our bodies should definitely be ours to control.

hater-of-terfs

If you must add an adjective, try “coercive hierarchy”. I’d argue that that’s kinda redundant too, but at least it’s easier to understand and harder to misinterpret

Prioritizing the opinions of experts over those of randos when forming your own opinion isn’t a hierarchy, because no one has any coercive power over anyone else in that scenario. But when a single expert gets to decide whether you get access to medical care and there’s nothing you can do about it, that is a coercive hierarchy

queeranarchism

I guess, yeah. It’s not a problem if Sandra the Doctor is considered more worth listening to on medical issues than me, because she went to medical school and I didn’t. It’s a problem when Sandra has the power to deny me access to health care because she thinks I don’t need it, whereas I, who have to live in my body, think I do need that health care.
Power is the problem.

It’s just that almost every time we talk about hierarchy today, we mean coercive hierarchy, because the society we live in organizes power in hierarchies. Teachers, doctors, therapists, parents, social workers, team coordinators, these are all people that hold power in coercive hierarchies in the current system. They need to lose that power in order to be able to actually help us without coercing us. But we’re so accustomed to accepting that people in hierarchies are entitled to power, that most people don’t even want to acknowledge that teachers, doctors, therapists, parents, social workers, etc have coercive power that they should lose.

You run into the same problem with words like ‘leadership’ and ‘authority’. These words are difficult to use in a non-coercive context because they’re so often used to obscure the presence of a coercive power relationship.

It’s one of the reasons why anarchist groups often insist on calling someone who ‘leads’ the group a coordinator or a facilitator instead of a leader even though they do a fair amount of ‘leadership’ things. We use a word disconnected from power relationships to remind each other that this person does not and should not have any power over us, they’re just the one that we chose to temporarily do the task of organizing some stuff that helps the rest of the group function. This creates different expectations and behavior in the ‘coordinator’ and in the whole group.

ragingcitrustree

I feel like there’s some room for improvement on what we call the people who keep us organized in anarchist spaces. We could be a lot sillier about it.

queeranarchism

You know what, that’s a very good point!

haberdashing

ms-demeanor

So You Need To Buy A Computer But You Don't Know What Specs Are Good These Days

Hi.

This is literally my job.

Lots of people are buying computers for school right now or are replacing computers as their five-year-old college laptop craps out so here's the standard specs you should be looking for in a (windows) computer purchase in August 2023.

PROCESSOR

Intel i5 (no older than 10th Gen)
Ryzen 7

You can get away with a Ryzen 5 but an intel i3 should be an absolute last resort. You want at least an intel i5 or a Ryzen 7 processor. The current generation of intel processors is 13, but anything 10 or newer is perfectly fine. DO NOT get a higher performance line with an older generation; a 13th gen i5 is better than an 8th gen i7. (Unfortunately I don't know enough about ryzens to tell you which generation is the earliest you should get, but staying within 3 generations is a good rule of thumb)

RAM

8GB absolute minimum

If you don't have at least 8GB RAM on a modern computer it's going to be very, very slow. Ideally you want a computer with at least 16GB, and it's a good idea to get a computer that will let you add or swap RAM down the line (nearly all desktops will let you do this, for laptops you need to check the specs for Memory and see how many slots there are and how many slots are available; laptops with soldered RAM cannot have the memory upgraded - this is common in very slim laptops)

STORAGE

256GB SSD

Computers mostly come with SSDs these days; SSDs are faster than HDDs but typically have lower storage for the same price. That being said: SSDs are coming down in price and if you're installing your own drive you can easily upgrade the size for a low cost. Unfortunately that doesn't do anything for you for the initial purchase.

A lot of cheaper laptops will have a 128GB SSD and, because a lot of stuff is stored in the cloud these days, that can be functional. I still recommend getting a bit more storage than that because it's nice if you can store your music and documents and photos on your device instead of on the cloud. You want to be able to access your files even if you don't have internet access.

But don't get a computer with a big HDD instead of getting a computer with a small SSD. The difference in speed is noticeable.

SCREEN (laptop specific)

Personally I find that touchscreens have a negative impact on battery life and are easier to fuck up than standard screens. They are also harder to replace if they get broken. I do not recommend getting a touch screen unless you absolutely have to.

A lot of college students especially tend to look for the biggest laptop screen possible; don't do that. It's a pain in the ass to carry a 17" laptop around campus and with the way that everything is so thin these days it's easier to damage a 17" screen than a 14" screen.

On the other end of that: laptops with 13" screens tend to be very slim devices that are glued shut and impossible to work on or upgrade.

Your best bet (for both functionality and price) is either a 14" or a 15.6" screen. If you absolutely positively need to have a 10-key keyboard on your laptop, get the 15.6". If you need something portable more than you need 10-key, get a 14"

FORM FACTOR (desktop specific)

If you purchase an all-in-one desktop computer I will begin manifesting in your house physically. All-in-ones take away every advantage desktops have in terms of upgradeability and maintenance; they are expensive and difficult to repair and usually not worth the cost of disassembling to upgrade.

There are about four standard sizes of desktop PC: All-in-One (the size of a monitor with no other footprint), Tower (Big! probably at least two feet long in two directions), Small Form Factor Tower (Very moderate - about the size of a large shoebox), and Mini/Micro/Tiny (Small! about the size of a small hardcover book).

If you are concerned about space you are much better off getting a MicroPC and a bracket to put it on your monitor than you are getting an all-in-one. This will be about a million percent easier to work on than an all-in-one and this way if your monitor dies your computer is still functional.

Small form factor towers and towers are the easiest to work on and upgrade; if you need a burly graphics card you need to get a full size tower, but for everything else a small form factor tower will be fine. Most of our business sales are SFF towers and MicroPCs, the only time we get something larger is if we have to put a $700 graphics card in it. SFF towers will accept small graphics cards and can handle upgrades to the power supply; MicroPCs can only have the RAM and SSD upgraded and don't have room for any other components or their own internal power supply.

WARRANTY

Most desktops come with either a 1 or 3 year warranty; either of these is fine and if you want to upgrade a 1 year to a 3 year that is also fine. I've generally found that if something is going to do a warranty failure on desktop it's going to do it the first year, so you don't get a hell of a lot of added mileage out of an extended warranty but it doesn't hurt and sometimes pays off to do a 3-year.

Laptops are a different story. Laptops mostly come with a 1-year warranty and what I recommend everyone does for every laptop that will allow it is to upgrade that to the longest warranty you can get with added drop/damage protection. The most common question our customers have about laptops is if we can replace a screen and the answer is usually "yes, but it's going to be expensive." If you're purchasing a low-end laptop, the parts and labor for replacing a screen can easily cost more than half the price of a new laptop. HOWEVER, the way that most screens get broken is by getting dropped. So if you have a warranty with drop protection, you just send that sucker back to the factory and they fix it for you.

So, if it is at all possible, check if the manufacturer of a laptop you're looking at has a warranty option with drop protection. Then, within 30 days (though ideally on the first day you get it) of owning your laptop, go to the manufacturer site, register your serial number, and upgrade the warranty. If you can't afford a 3-year upgrade at once set a reminder for yourself to annually renew. But get that drop protection, especially if you are a college student or if you've got kids.

And never, ever put pens or pencils on your laptop keyboard. I've seen people ruin thousand dollar, brand-new laptops that they can't afford to fix because they closed the screen on a ten cent pencil. Keep liquids away from them too.

LIFESPAN

There's a reasonable chance that any computer you buy today will still be able to turn on and run a program or two in ten years. That does not mean that it is "functional."

At my office we estimate that the functional lifespan of desktops is 5-7 years and the functional lifespan of laptops is 3-5 years. Laptops get more wear and tear than desktops and desktops are easier to upgrade to keep them running. At 5 years for desktops and 3 years for laptops you should look at upgrading the RAM in the device and possibly consider replacing the SSD with a new (possibly larger) model, because SSDs and HDDs don't last forever.

COST

This means that you should think of your computers as an annual investment rather than as a one-time purchase. It is more worthwhile to pay $700 for a laptop that will work well for five years than it is to pay $300 for a laptop that will be outdated and slow in one year (which is what will happen if you get an 8th gen i3 with 8GB RAM). If you are going to get a $300 laptop try to get specs as close as possible to the minimums I've laid out here.

If you have to compromise on these specs, the one that is least fixable is the processor. If you get a laptop with an i3 processor you aren't going to be able to upgrade it even if you can add more RAM or a bigger SSD. If you have to get lower specs in order to afford the device put your money into the processor and make sure that the computer has available slots for upgrade and that neither the RAM nor the SSD is soldered to the motherboard. (one easy way to check this is to search "[computer model] RAM upgrade" on youtube and see if anyone has made a video showing what the inside of the laptop looks like and how much effort it takes to replace parts)

Computers are expensive right now. This is frustrating, because historically consumer computer prices have been on a downward trend but since 2020 that trend has been all over the place. Desktop computers are quite expensive at the moment (August 2023) and decent laptops are extremely variably priced.

If you are looking for a decent, upgradeable laptop that will last you a few years, here are a couple of options that you can purchase in August 2023 that have good prices for their specs:

14" Lenovo - $670 - 11th-gen i5, 16GB RAM, and 512GB SSD
15.6" HP - $540 - 11th-gen i5, 16GB RAM, and 256GB SSD
14" Dell - $710 - 12th-gen i5, 16GB RAM, and 256GB SSD

If you are looking for a decent, affordable desktop that will last you a few years, here are a couple of options that you can purchase in August 2023 that have good prices for their specs:

If I were going to buy any of these I'd probably get the HP laptop or the Dell Tower. The HP Laptop is actually a really good price for what it is.

Anyway happy computering.

torcoolguylives

vonkarn

listen to me. i do not care how old you are or how silly you think something is. in this world you have to take the things that make you happy and be all about them. it’s the only way you’re gonna survive.

vonkarn

this is why i’m absolutely throwing a tiny birthday party for my plush possum Turnpike in two days bc august 18th is her birthday. she’s gonna be 1

vonkarn

happy birthday Turnpike!!

vonkarn

GUESS WHAT DAY IT IS!!

todays-problematic-ship

museum-of-artifacts

The Swedish warship Vasa. It sank in 1628 less than a mile into its maiden voyage and was recovered from the sea floor after 333 years almost completely intact. Now housed at the Vasa Museum in Stockholm, is the world's best preserved 17th century ship

Tap for more

skulki-d

Kinda funny that the best example of its kind is the one that sucked as bad as it possibly could.

trollprincess

Oh, it was *ridiculously* bad. That initial post says “from the sea floor,” but that implies it made it out to sea.

So Gustavus Adolphus is king when Sweden is fighting wars all over the place. They need more ships, so he commissions four of them, two big and two small. The Vasa was supposed to be one of the smaller ones. Emphasis on “supposed to be.” Because Gustavus Adolphus keeps ordering changes. Like, add twelve more feet to the keel! Pile on the carvings! Add another gun deck for the hell of it! It got even worse when Sweden lost ten ships in a huge storm, so now they needed the Vasa *yesterday*. But Gustavus Adolphus is STILL demanding changes. So the shipwright scales up the measurements to try and make things work. Which might have worked, except the ship was being worked on by Swedes, Finns, Danes, Sami people. Communication is hard enough, but also it turns out that there are two different types of rulers being used by the workers. One is in Swedish feet and one is in Amsterdam feet. Amsterdam feet were only eleven inches long. (There’s a joke there I’m too tired to make.)

Anyway, because of that, the port side is heavier.

Okay, so you have to imagine the Vasa, with its hastily-scaled-up measurements, its *seven hundred* decorative carvings, its sixty-fucking-four bronze cannons. It’s a goddamn mess, AND its center of gravity is way off. Except that’s not something you could measure with instruments at the time. What you’d do is, you’d put it in the water, then have a bunch of guys run back and forth from port to starboard a bunch of times to test if it’ll tip over.

The guys who did this test could only do it three times before the Vasa was like, “I think I’m gonna hurl,” and almost tipped over right then and there.

Everybody there is like, “… uh-oh.” The admiral conducting the test just sighs and goes, “If only the king were here,” because Gustavus Adolphus wasn’t, and maybe if he had been he would have seen they fucked up and decided to pull the plug. Oh, and those bronze cannons? They weighed down the ship so much that the lowest row of gun portals was almost at the waterline.

But. Sweden needed the Vasa. It needed it to go to war. At that time, it was the most expensive thing Sweden ever spent money on.

SO. It’s August 10th, 1628. It’s the port in Stockholm. There’s music, there’s festivities, everybody’s showed up to see the Vasa off. A few ships tug the Vasa out to the current, let her loose, she drops four of her sails, and off she goes.

For about thirteen hundred meters.

Then, a light breeze blows. When I say light, I mean light. But that was all it took. The Vasa flops to port, water flows into the gun portals, and down it goes, still in the fucking harbor with its masts sticking out of the water.

So when that original post says “recovered from the sea floor,” it means brought up from the *actual harbor*. Like, within sight of the docks.

Oh, oh! But cool story about all this. Remember those sixty-four bronze cannons? Yeah, Sweden kind of needed those back, so about three decades later in 1658, the Swedes go down and retrieve almost all of them with a diving bell. Which is kind of badass.

wisdomofanemptyheart

shubbabang

it’s sinple from 9 to 5 u just gotta be workpilled you gotta be emailcore focusedwave it’s true a neurotypical told me and they’re normal so I believe tgem

bitterappleman

We have to up our productivity to meet our quotas and improve our metrics. We should reach out to our client base with surveys and user feedback. That's not my department, but we need to restate our core values and create an action plan for a strategy that'll greatly synergize our output. But let's circle back to that later. We need to focus on our product. We need to produce content. We have to think outside the box and be proactive with our traditional culture. We've gotta return to the drawing board and address the elephant in the room. Do we have the tools to succeed in our tasks? We need more constructive feedback. This could be a game changer. We need to leverage our influence to really push the envelope and improve our portfolio. No need to reinvent the wheel, let's run this up the flagpole and touch base with management.

wisdomofanemptyheart

I copypasted this in my work slack and now I'm VP of sales I have no idea what is going on people are nodding they want me to go to 'Toronto'

valtharr

were--ralph

LMAO TWITTER IS REALLY TURNING PVP IM LAUGHINGGGG

were--ralph

FREE FOR ALL, ITEMS ON, ANY STAGES

were--ralph

So You Need To Buy A Computer But You Don't Know What Specs Are Good These Days

GUESS WHAT DAY IT IS!!

There are more background paintings on this article, featuring comments by the masters/artists themselves !

Some of the following pieces were made by other artists 2:

LMAO TWITTER IS REALLY TURNING PVP IM LAUGHINGGGG

FREE FOR ALL, ITEMS ON, ANY STAGES

LOL

LobsterBossFight

See, that’s what the app is perfect for.

So You Need To Buy A Computer But You Don't Know What Specs Are Good These Days

GUESS WHAT DAY IT IS!!

There are more background paintings on this article, featuring comments by the masters/artists themselves !

Some of the following pieces were made by other artists 2:

LMAO TWITTER IS REALLY TURNING PVP IM LAUGHINGGGG

FREE FOR ALL, ITEMS ON, ANY STAGES

LOL